Dorchester nurseryman and President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Marshall Wilder (1798-1886), a popular speaker and writer, once said “It was intended by the founders of the Garden and Cemetery at Mount Auburn that these grounds should ultimtely offer an example of the best style of landscape or picturesque gardening.”

The same English picturesque landscape style also served later as the model for Central Park. Frederick Law Olmsted loved the natural landscape with the extended lawn, careful placement of trees, water, and curved walkways.

The seed and nursery industries of the nineteenth century were just going along with the prominent ideas on the landscape and the garden when they wrote essays and included illustrations of the landscape that were often in the same style.

To visit Mount Auburn today is to step back in time, but also to experience the English picturesque landscape.